Report 704
Report #704 Skillset: Transmology Skill: Claws Org: Illuminati Status: Rejected Oct 2011 Furies' Decision: We are rejecting this report as not necessary and question poisons as a thematic solution for transmology. Problem: This report attempts to kill three birds with one stone: A] Gauntlets, the Illuminati equivalent of Wands and Symbols, are not terribly useful for player vs. player combat, B] many aspects of Lusternian combat are far too random, and C] spixes are too easily negated by keeping blindness up. Solution #1: Change Transmology Claws to be envenomable with a player chosen venom as with telekinetic daggers, rather than with charybdon as with nihilist barbedtails. The advantage of choosing your venom is balanced by the victim getting the full chance at shrugging from resilience and poisons, the 50% proc rate and buying vials of venom. Solution #2: As brought up by Viynain in comments, FLESHFORM CLAW WITH instead of envenoming and then clawing. Would still have the 50% proc chance, etc. May be more thematic that we secrete our own poisons. Player Comments: ---on 10/5 @ 22:10 writes: This change makes hand morphs (and therefore gauntlets) more useful, less random and viable for delivering nircol in combination with the spix. ---on 10/6 @ 15:54 writes: I'm sorry but I'm completely against giving Illuminati even more afflictions to add to their surplus of an already impressive array. Damage I can see and at a minor increase but when I spar against Shuyin and I recieve twenty or more afflictions that I cant even cure properly they dont need another. ---on 10/6 @ 18:12 writes: I dont think they're asking for more afflictions, just better control over the ones they can already give, not to mention it'll be just like warrior/monk poisons with a chance to shrug. So it's actually reducing affliction rate ---on 10/6 @ 22:14 writes: Sidd has the right of it here. This change would mean less afflictions due to the shrug rate and so forth. The sole advantage is that the Illuminati could pick which one instead of it being random. Just like with warrior afflictions. ---on 10/6 @ 22:14 writes: Warrior venoms, even. ---on 10/7 @ 08:45 writes: Can you not already shrug claws charybdon? I thought that any poison based attack could be shrugged, period. I agree with Veracruz though, they put out so many afflictions already that having choice afflicting from the poison list on top of all the rest seems excessive. I'm not sure how having choice poison would help spix either, I assume you intend to use niricol to strip sixthsense by blinding them, giving your spix the window of a herb balance to try and transfix. ---on 10/7 @ 19:49 writes: Yes, you can currently shrug the charybdon claws, all this change, from my understanding, is that the Illuminati will just have better control of the poison they can give, not increasing their affliction output. I'm guessing, the choice poison will help spix because faeleaf coming up is delayed, so there is enough time to claw niricol (assuming it's not shrugged) then have the spix soon tick, getting the transfix. I think a better change would be to make the claws syntax CLAW (target) WITH (poison), which is simpler, otherwise, the idea's fine with me. ---on 10/7 @ 22:45 writes: @Enyalida: Niricol is indeed the thing you're use alongside spix. You'd time it so that your niricol hit is just before the spix tick, so that they're still waiting out the delay between smoking faeleaf and becoming immune to the transfix again. There's other tactics that you could use claws for there as well, but that's the most significant change you should expect to see in illuminati tactics due to this report. ---on 10/13 @ 17:59 writes: Transfixion is a powerful affliction, especially on top of the afflictions an Illuminati can deliver, so I am wary of the proposed change. What is stopping you from having a beast spit niricol instead? ---on 10/13 @ 22:46 writes: The long beast balance, chance for shrugging and so forth makes beast spit less than ideal. But, really, spix is more of a side point. That's why it's listed last, as an example of the sort of thing you would use claws for. Equally valid would be to use it to afflict with dulak (mental afflictions are useful for illums in general), ibululu/contortin (for astrologers using meteor), mantakaya (to put pressure on focus balance) or pyrotoxin/saxitin/senso (to work well with pyromancers). The report isn't to make a quick-fix to spix, but rather to decrease randomness and increase choice, something that I think would improve Lusternian combat in general. ---on 10/17 @ 22:07 writes: I wouldn't support this, Illuminati are already the most offensively hindering class on their own, and the mechanics for getting blindness back up are outmoded and clunky. If this were to go in, it'd increase that functionality even more (paralysis, niricol) and make it even more over the top than it is now. Everyone wants to put more control into your offense, but considering the passive hindering afflictions that already exist in the class I don't think it's feasible. If spix are unusable right now because of blindness (which i don't buy) propose changing those, and then changing to this but as is this would be too powerful I feel ---on 10/17 @ 23:54 writes: If that line of thinking were true, then this would have already been a problem from the beginning, since beast spit has always been available. As it is right now, there is no strategic value in choosing claws over crush (high blunt damage) or flay (psychic damage) given the the randomness of claw's poisons and its lack of damage in comparison with the other hands transformations. It would not be ideal to speed up the rate of spix ticks given that would only make things even worse for the victim (and neither would I want that) and neither would it be good to rely on beast spit given its long balance and limited uses, so I would support being able to claw your poison of choice so long as the standard rate of shrugging, needing a vial of said poison, etc apply. By the way, the mechanics of getting blindness back up are fine, given the list of powerful afflictions that Glamours can give if you are not blind. ---on 10/18 @ 05:07 writes: Of course, Glamourists have to spend two balances and power to get you reliably seeing for any real amount of time. I agree that Illuminati don't need any more afflicting potential (in the form of another controlled affliction from the poison list). Claws would be useful in adding more random afflictions to someone who is already bogged down to distract and detract the strength of random or passive curing. With the large amount of customization and power inherent in transmology (though YES, not every single option is optimized for combaT), I don't think this is a needed addition. ---on 10/18 @ 10:53 writes: There's no added affliction potential if claws already can do poisons to begin with. What's being asked is better control over said poisons. In fact, if it gave specific poisons, the affliction potential would be reduced given that the standard charybdon line will be replaced by the specific poison line, thereby reducing the need for the victim to diagnose or guess what they were hit with. ---on 10/19 @ 21:21 writes: With the latest change that gives an aura to let gauntlets also give temp insanity, I think this report is obsolete at this point in time ---on 10/20 @ 05:37 writes: How so? The change applies to all hands attacks, so it's not like the new change only applied to claws ---on 10/25 @ 07:14 writes: That dosn't make it any less unnecessary. Giving insanity, damage, and a poison of choice is a bit over the top considering all the rest of your afflicting power and your cure throttling. ---on 10/29 @ 16:07 writes: There seems to be an issue of semantics here. This proposal would indeed be offering the illuminati more powerful afflicting ability. If picking the afflictions wasn't a boon, you wouldn't want it. The majority of the afflictions that could be used with this are inoffensive to me but I think that niricol presents a minor issue. Yes you can currently use your beast balance on spitting niricol, but this change would allow you to use your beast balance for other purposes (or to double the chance of bypassing shrug) while you time your attacks with your spix. One variable in this that I haven't seen mentioned is the balance time on using claws. Is it in the 4s range? ---on 10/31 @ 23:07 writes: Yes, it is.